Two years ago, the demand for foreign luxury goods was on a downward spiral. Small mom and pop importers were closing their doors, the lowered value of the dollar was making it almost impossible to make importing goods worth while, and American companies focused on stocking their businesses with American products.

In January 2009, retail container traffic at US ports was down 14.6%, according to the Port Tracker report released that March. At the time, Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said, “…this year’s numbers are going to remain well below last year because sales are still slow and most economists aren’t seeing a recovery before the second half of the year at the earliest. Careful inventory management is a key to survival for retailers in the economic times we’re going through.”

But much has changed in the past two years. In fact, the Global Port Tracker report, which was released by the NRF and Hackett Associates this month, shows a 13% rise in import cargo volumes for March 2010 compared to the figures from 2009.

“These numbers show that retailers continue to anticipate improvements in the US economy,” Gold said. “This is very different from the past two years when merchants were continually cutting their imports in an effort to manage inventory.”

In 2009, the Port Tracker showed retail container traffic volumes had been on a constant decline for 19 consecutive months. This February showed an estimated 1.08 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) coming into ports—a 29% increase over typical figures for February.

In addition to the up-tick predicted for March 2010, the report is forecasting April to be up 19% due to retailers preparing for spring and summer, May to be up 17%, June to be up 25%, and July to be up 20%.

Ben Hackett, Hackett Associates’ founder, said the positive state of the US economy looks promising and stable for imports and across the board. “We are in a cautious but sustained growth cycle,” he said. “Trade will grow, and as a result of statistical comparison with the trough in 2009, the growth rates will appear to be healthy.”